1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cartons and trays used for collecting, packing, and shipping articles in commerce, the cartons and trays being formed from sheet-form members for erection upon need.
2. The Prior Art
Collecting various items of merchandise from available stock according to incoming orders and packaging them for shipment has been a major activity for many businesses. In a typical warehousing operation, whose size and volume does not permit automation beyond such tasks as inventory control, reusable trays are carried by hand among the different storage areas and filled with desired numbers of selected articles. When the order is completed on each tray, the tray is sent to a repackaging station for unloading the articles and packing them with desired cushioning materials in rigid boxes for shipment. Rehandling of the items is costly. Further, even the reasonably careful packager can miss items in the tray or fail to pack them with proper cushioning among the different articles.
Use of skin packaging films such as polyethylene or Surlynbrand films are well known to the art, including drawing a vacuum through a paper-board material onto a resin coating such as Dupont Surlyn-D on the material. Packaging the plastic film with a string captured therein is patented by the American Packaging Company, of Hudson, Ohio. Such skin packaging arrangements are thoroughly automated and mechanized and are now well known to the art.